As of Friday afternoon, approximately 500 tickets remained for the contest. Upper bowl seat prices have been reduced to $5 in an effort to generate the first sell-out at SIU Arena since March 1, 2008.

Saturday marks the last game of the regular season in the Missouri Valley Conference. If SIU wins, and Missouri State and Northern Iowa both lose their games, the Salukis would get the No. 5 seed at next week's conference tournament. Otherwise, Southern will be the No. 6 seed.

On Davante Drinkard: "Everybody wants to talk about the face of the program being Dez (Jackson), but in all honesty, Davante has been the face of the program. He has an unbelievable personality. This kid does an unbelievable job in community service, a great job in the community, he portrays himself always in the best manner. No matter where you go, people who have run into Davante at a restaurant or an event, I come back and people are writing me talking about how personable Davante is and what a great kid he is, and what a great representative of the program he is.

On Colby Long: "Everything he's done for us the last two years, going to graduate with a degree, played for the Salukis and then go serve your country, I think that speaks volumes about his character."

On Bronson Verhines: "He's going to set the all-time record for hours earned as a college student. I think he's going to leave here with 195 hours. The guy could almost leave here with a doctorate degree -- one of the smartest guys I've ever had the opportunity to coach. Certainly, he's gotten better and helped us down the stretch."

On Desmar Jackson: "We should be married. As much as we've fought and gone head-to-head, we've made unbelievable progress. I love this kid. I think he's going to have a great, great career. This is one of the young men who will have an opportunity to play basketball after graduation. He's on track to graduate. He's one of the most talented young men I've ever had the opportunity to coach."

Desmar Jackson in a class by himselfDesmar Jackson (6-5, 180, Sr.) leads the team in scoring (564), rebounding (162), assists (63), steals (73) and free throws (149). No player in school history has ever led the team in all five categories. The last player to lead in four of those categories was Darren Brooks, who did it in 2005, but he did not lead the team in free throws that year.

Jackson surpasses on 1,800 points
Jackson has 1,835 career points (804 at Wyoming, 1,031 at Southern Illinois) and has scored more points in his college career than any active player in the league. He is the 43rd player in SIU history to score 1,000 points. Jackson is the league's second-leading scorer (18.8 ppg) and has scored in double figures in 34-straight games dating back to last season.

Anthony Beane named MVC Player of the Week for third time
G Anthony Beane (6-2, 180, So.) was named MVC Player of the Week for the third time in four weeks. He joins Doug McDermott as the only players to win it three times in four weeks since Hersey Hawkins in 1987. The last Saluki to win POW three times in a season was Darren Brooks (2005).
Here's a comparison of his stats in the first eight MVC games versus the last nine.
Beane MVC Games 1st 8 Last 9
Scoring Average 9.4 22.7
FG Percentage .412 .530
3FG Percentage .346 .438
FT Percentage .556 .878
Rebounds 2.5 3.7
Team Record 2-6 6-3

Jackson 12th in nation in steals
Jackson is making his case for MVC Defensive Player of the year, leading the MVC with 2.43 steals per game, which ranks him No. 12 nationally. Three times he has recorded six steals in a game. Bryan Mullins is the only other Saluki player to do so three times in a season (2007-08).

Dynamic Duo
Jackson (18.8 ppg) and Beane (14.4 ppg) combine to average 33.2 points per game. The last Saluki duo to combine for more than 30.0 points per game in a season was the Troy Hudson (21.0)-Rashad Tucker (15.1) combo of 1997.

Beane posts five-straight 20-point games
Beane scored 20 or more points in five-straight games from Jan. 29 to Feb. 11. He became the first Saluki player with four straight since Kent Williams (2001), and the first since Troy Hudson (1997) to have five-straight with 20 or more points.

Series versus Illinois State
The Redbirds have won four-straight over the Salukis and 10 of the last 14. SIU's last win over Illinois State came on Jan. 1, 2012. In that 86-71 victory, Treg Setty led Southern with 20 points, and T.J. Lindsay made 6-of-7 shots from 3-point range.